Richard Pearson

b.1765 d.11 January 1836
MD Edin(1786) LRCP(1788)

Richard Pearson, M.D., was born at Birmingham in 1765, and educated at the grammar school of Sutton Coldfield during the mastership of Mr. Webb, an accomplished classical scholar; and subsequently under Dr. Rose, of Chiswick. His medical education was commenced under Mr. Tomlinson, a practitioner of good repute in Birmingham. Whilst with him he obtained the gold medal from the Royal Humane Society for the best dissertation on the signs of death with reference to its distinction from the state of suspended animation. Proceeding to Edinburgh, he graduated doctor of medicine 24th June, 1786 (D.M.I. de Scrophulâ). After travelling for two years through Germany, France, and Italy, in company with the honourable Mr. Knox, afterwards lord Northland, he returned to England, and was admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians 22nd December, 1788. He settled in his native town, Birmingham, and was elected physician to the General hospital there in September, 1792. He resigned his appointment at the hospital in 1801, when he removed to London, where he remained some years, but then withdrew to Reading, and from Reading to Sutton. Eventually he returned to Birmingham, where, in conjunction with Mr. Sands Cox, he took an active part in the establishment of the medical school of that town. Dr. Pearson died at Birmingham 11th January, 1836, in the seventy-first year of his age, and was interred in the burial-ground of St. Paul’s chapel in that town. Dr. Pearson was a sound practical physician and a very careful observer. His little treatise on the Influenza was regarded by a very competent authority, Dr. E. A. Parkes, as one of the best that has ever appeared on that disease. Dr. Pearson was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a very voluminous writer. At the earnest desire of the editor, the venerable Archdeacon Nares, he wrote the medical reviews in " The British Critic." He contributed the articles on medicine in the early part of Rees’s Cyclopædia, and was associated with Dr. Hutton and Dr. Shaw in the Abridgement of the Philosophical Transactions. He was also the author of— A Short Account of the Nature and Properties of different kinds of Airs, so far as relates to their Medicinal Use, intended as an Introduction to the Pneumatic Method of treating Diseases. 8vo. Birmingham. 1795.The Arguments in favour of an Inflammatory Diathesis in Hydrophobia considered. 8vo. Lond. 1798.Observations on the Bilious Fever of 1797, 1798, and 1799. 8vo. Birmingham. 1799.Some Observations on the present Epidemic Catarrhal Fever or Influenza, chiefly in relation to its Treatment. 8vo. Lond. 1803.Outlines of a Plan calculated to Stop the Progress of the Malignant Contagion which rages on the Shores of the Mediterranean, if it should unfortunately make its way to this Country. 8vo. Lond. 1804.Thesaurus Medicaminum; or, a New Collection of Medical Prescriptions. 8vo. Lond.A Practical Synopsis of the Materia Alimentaria and Materia Medica. 8vo. Lond. 1807.Account of a Particular Preparation of Salted Fish, to be used with boiled Rice, boiled Potatoes, &c. 8vo. Lond. 1812.A brief Description of the Plague. 8vo. 1813.Observations on the Action of the Broom Seed in Dropsical Affections, 8vo. Lond. 1835.